Tibet

I had dreamed of traveling to Tibet, visit the legendary city of Lhasa and see the Potala for a long time. After much reading and talking about the current situation with Tibetan exiles in India I decided to go in 2005. Despite over 50 years of chinese occupation (the Chinese government calls “liberation”), Lhasa was still an incredible city, although oppressed and unfree and in the process of “Han” assimilation. With a bittersweet feeling, seeing what the Chinese government was building to destroy the legacy, the Tibetan identity and their culture, I visited the neighborhood of Barkhor, the Jokhang temple, the Potala Palace and the Norbulingka, as well as the Ganden Monastery, the Namtso lake and a horse fair outside from Lhasa. Then I undertake a 5 day trip to the border to Nepal via Gyantse, Shigatse (where the last Panchen Lamas are buried), Sakya, the Base Camp of Mount Qomolangma (Everest) at 5200m of altitude where I slept in a cell of buddhist nuns in the Rongbuk monastery, and finishing my trip in Old Tingri before entering into Nepal.

Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, hundreds of monasteries were destroyed and tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed. The flag and the old currency of Tibet were banned as well as any portrait of the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize, considered a kind of terrorist by the Chinese dictatorship. The Chinese argue that they led progress to Tibet but progress can not be accepted by the way of military force, repression of the population and the killing of dissidents. Hundreds of Tibetans burn themselves to bonzo each year in protest. No Tibetan in occupied Tibet dares to speak, so you´d better not ask.

I can not encourage anyone to visit Tibet as some people think it´s like supporting the invasion, as tourism brings a lot of money to the Chinese government. Others believe that no visiting them is like leaving them alone, like forgetting them. But what I can say is that Tibet is an amazing country and Tibetans are friendly people who should have freedom to take control of their own destinies in peace! I really wish one day they can follow their own way in free.